Carry On My Wayward Son
by Evey Edge
Summary: A one-shot about the night Michael convinces Jeep to abandon Alex. A secret is revealed about Alex's origins. Father/Son relationships only.


Michael's wings maintained a steady beat as he hovered high in the night sky. The city was peaceful below him, with so many of its citizens having already retreated into their homes. He had been there for hours, watching the lights flicker out, one by one. The window he watched with the most attention still glowed with artificial light.

The archangel had spent many hours watching this window, always from a distance. He was careful never to draw too close. It would be disastrous if even one citizen guessed Michael wasn't simply surveying the city. Despite this knowledge, it was difficult not to drift just a little closer, close enough to hear the ongoings of that one very special room.

He knew it was a selfish impulse, and yet he couldn't deny the temptation was there. The lighted room was his flame and he, a helpless moth. No, not helpless. He wasn't so weak. He had made a vow and he would keep it, no matter what it cost him.

His mission tonight was painful, but necessary. Still, a part of Michael wished that the light would never go out, that he'd be spared his painful duty. Michael offered a silent prayer to his absent window went dark the very next moment, a fitting answer to his unheard missive. Michael swooped down to the building below and slid open the unlocked window.

As he entered the comfortably sized living room he noted the voices down the hall, a man and boy's. He stretched his hearing to make out the conversation.

"Come on Dad, pleeaaseee," the child's voice wheedled.

"Aren't you a little old to be begging for a bedtime song?" Despite Jeep's words Michael could hear the affectionate tone in the man's voice. The boy would get his way, Michael had no doubt.

"No. Come on, I promise I'll go right to bed after." Michael seriously doubted this, but he heard Jeep's relenting sigh.

"Alright. _Carry on my wayward son. They'll be peace when you are done. Lay your weary head to rest. Don't you cry no more._" Jeep's voice wasn't particularly strong, but Michael could understand why Alex had asked him to sing. There was something soothing about his low voice, and though he sang softly, he did so with a great deal of love. Michael suddenly felt he was intruding on too private a moment.

He pulled back his angelic senses so Jeep's voice was no longer discernible. Michael focused instead on the room in which he stood. It was comfortable, though not nearly as luxurious as it could have been, given Jeep's status as one of Vega's war heroes.

Jeep had prefered to fade into the background after the fighting had ceased, leaving the task of governing to other men. Few people these days even remembered what Jeep looked like, which suited both Jeep and Michael. Anonymity was the best possible protection for Alex. Of course that was no longer enough, hence Michael's visit here this evening.

Michael kept his eyes on the window, even as he heard Jeep's approach from behind him. He spoke without turning around.

"You've been avoiding me."

"Can't imagine why, after our last conversation." Michael finally turned to his human friend. Michael supposed "friend" might be too optimistic a term these days. The last time they'd spoken Jeep had called "a cold-blooded, heartless bastard."

"So you haven't changed your mind." Michael had always admired Jeep's passion and his loyalty, but those things were now standing in the way of what had to be be done.

"About abandoning my son? No." He understood Jeep's feelings, more completely than the man knew, but that didn't change the facts. Alex had a destiny and the best thing to do for him was to prepare him for it.

"It is what is best for Alex." As much as he wished Alex could have a happy childhood, Michael knew that such an upbringing would serve him poorly in the long run.

"For Alex or for the Chosen One?" Michael blinked, unsure of Jeep's meaning.

"I don't understand your distinction." Alex was the Chosen One. It had been ordained before Alex was even conceived.

Jeep ran a hand through his hair, which had become flecked with grey over the past decade. He looked older than his 35 years, hardly surprising given the life he'd lead.

"Michael, I know you love humanity, probably a hell of a lot more than we deserve, and you've sacrificed a lot for our race. To you, Alex is humanity's salvation. But to me Alex is my son. He's my whole world." Although Jeep hadn't intended to injure with his words, they none the less dealt Michael a harsh blow.

"Do you think that's all he is to me? A tool to fight my brother?" Nothing could be further from the truth. From the second Alex had been placed in his arms Michael had known there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for him. It went so much further than the promise he'd made to Alex's mother. Since that day every step Michael had taken he had done to ensure the boy's future. For Jeep to suggest that he didn't care about Alex pierced his heart like empyrean steel.

"I don't know Michael, why don't you tell me?" Jeep had no idea the secret Michael had kept from him all these years. Michael had thought it for the best. Jeep had accepted the responsibility of caring for Alex and it had seemed unkind at the time to burden him with the truth.

"What I feel for the boy is irrelevant. He has a destiny, a purpose, and it is our responsibility to ensure that he is strong enough to fulfill that purpose. He needs to fall so he can rise." As a V5 Alex would never struggle, would never know true hardship. For Alex to be ready for the trials he would face, he needed to learn how to combat adversity. Harsh lessons now would allow him to survive later.

"He needs his father! You have no concept of the sacrifice you're asking me to make." It was no good. Michael would have to tell him.

"Yes, I do."

"How? How could you possibly understand being asked to give up your only son?"

"Because I did it twelve years ago." Jeep's face transitioned from anger to confusion.

"What?" Jeep hadn't yet made the connection. He would need the whole story.

"I held my son in my arms as he wept for his mother. I looked into his eyes and I understood something that few of my kind have ever been privileged to understand. I knew the love of a father for his son. I knew in that moment that there was nothing I would not do for him, no sacrifice I would not make. And so I gave him to a man I knew could raise my child far better than I could." It was the most terrible day of Michael's life, first watching the light drain out of his lover's eyes, then handing over his infant son to Jeep.

Michael had always been so careful. Nephilim were dangerous beings, powerful, world changing. Father had expressed forbidden their creation mid-way through the last century when a war had ignited do to the ambition of a half-angel/half human. He'd been shocked when Father had tasked him with conceiving a child with a specific human woman. The child had a destiny, Father had said.

Michael had never felt love so profound as he had in that moment. He'd always wondered at the bond he'd seen between parent and child, yet he'd never fully understood until it was his child he pulled to his chest.

"Alex is your son?" Michael struggled to recall the tears he felt welling in his eyes. It was foolish to react like this over a decision that had been made over a decade ago.

"No, Jeep, he WAS my son. He became yours the moment I put him in your arms." One day, Michael would be mentor to the boy, but no more than than. It would be selfish to seek a deeper bond.

"You say you loved him. How could you give him away? How could you bare it?" Michael understood why Jeep was asking. Jeep knew in his heart that Michael was right, and yet he doubted his resolve.

"Just as you will, by knowing it was what was best for him." Jeep sunk onto the couch and put his head in his hands.

"I can't. It's too cruel." Jeep's eyes looked imploring up at Michael, silently begging him to say he didn't have to do this. Unfortunately they both knew he did.

"Life is cruel Jeep. Sheltering Alex from that truth will hurt him in the long run." Jeep finally nodded.

"I'll tell him in the morning." Michael shook his head, wishing he could grant his friend this small mercy.

"No. It must be a clean break. He has to truly believe you've left and you're not coming back. Leave him a note." Jeep grimaced, but he stood up and retrieve a pen and a piece of paper. He uncapped the writing implement and let it rest on the paper for ten seconds.

"I don't know what to say." It should be simple, direct, and cold.

"You are an orphan now." Jeep scribbled the note, and handed the paper to Michael.

"You leave it. If I see him..." Michael nodded, knowing it was only fair he bare some of this burden. Jeep stood somewhat unsteadily, and headed to the door. He paused with his handle on the knob, "Look after our boy." Jeep was gone before Michael could come up with a response.

He didn't worry about Jeep's safety. Jeep was a strong man, he would survive the outside world. He did worry about his heart. Human emotions could lay waste to a body just as much as disease or injury. Still Michael couldn't think about that now. He had a message to deliver.

Michael was inside Alex's bedroom in less than a second. As Michael lay the paper next to Alex's head the boy began to toss and turn. It was almost as if he could sense the disturbance in his world. Michael had the strangest urge to stroke the boy's brow, but he resisted. He wondered if he could sooth Alex's nightmare another way. Michael reached out with his mind, trying with all his might to make connect with the part of Alex that was not human.

_Don't be afraid, Alex. You are not alone. You will never be alone._

Alex's body relaxed and he slipped back into a peaceful slumber. Had it worked? Had Alex heard him? He supposed he would never know.

Michael quitted the room as swiftly and silently as he had entered. Back through the window he leaped into the night's sky and let himself plummet a few moment before extending his wings and ending the freefall.

His thoughts drifted to Jeep, no doubt on his way to one of the secret exits scattered around Vega. How much pain he must feel now leaving behind his son, knowing the boy would come to hate Jeep for his desertion. Michael wondered if he'd been able to trade places with Jeep, would he have done it? Was it easier to abandon a boy or a baby? Was it better to have twelve years of happy memories, and then none at all or spend a quarter century watching from a distance? Michael didn't know.

The song Jeep had sung sprang unbidden into his mind, _Carry on my wayward son. They'll be peace when you are done. _How appropriate a lullaby for the Chosen One. One day Alex deeds would bring peace to this troubled world. He would grow and learn and Michael would be there always watching at a distance.

_Lay your weary head to rest. Don't you cry no more. _


End file.
